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Office of Research Services (ORS)

Anonymity & confidentiality

Limits to confidentiality

If confidentiality cannot be assured, potential participants must be made aware of the limitations and the possible consequences in the consent process.

The protection of confidentiality may be breached in a small number of situations. This could include:

  • situations where the law requires it (e.g., disclosure of child abuse)
  • where there is a reasonable expectation of harm occurring to either the participant or others (e.g., disclosure of plans to commit suicide or murder)

Possible limits to confidentiality and the requirement to breach confidentiality should be anticipated, addressed in your application form and explained to the participants.

If you are concerned about whether confidentiality should be breached, email the Research Ethics Office or call (250) 472-4545.

Laws & regulations

You must fully inform yourself about all laws and regulations which may affect or limit guarantees of confidentiality. Some questions to consider:

  • Could the dissemination of findings compromise confidentiality?
  • Is there a possibility that abuse of children or persons in care might be discovered during the study?
  • Is there a possibility that a participant may reveal intent to self-harm?
  •  Are you conducting group interviews? The participant should be informed about limits to ensuring confidentiality of the information shared in a group interview.
  • Is the use of a data/transcript release form appropriate?
    • when the anonymity of participants is compromised, or when culturally sensitive or personally identifying information is gathered, participants should be given the opportunity to review the final transcript and sign a transcript release form
    • in this form, they must acknowledge by their signature that the transcript accurately reflects what they said or intended to say
    • participants have the right to withdraw any or all of their responses
  • Is there a possibility that your research records/data may be liable to subpoena in judicial and administrative proceedings?
  • Will there be data sharing and/or data storage in other countries? There are instances when local legislation could impact the confidentiality of the research data.

Waiving anonymity & confidentiality

For some kinds of research (e.g., oral history), anonymity may not be necessary, possible or desirable. In such studies, research participants may not seek nor want confidentiality.

The right to remain anonymous or to be identified lies with the participant and you must confirm the participant’s wishes in the consent process. As the researcher, you may request participants to waive their right to confidentiality so that they can be identified within the release of findings (e.g., thesis).

In some studies, if participants waive their right to confidentiality, it is still important to extend the protection of privacy to them. For example, participants who will be identified in the dissemination of the research findings should review their interview transcripts and delete sections they do not want to be made public through dissemination. This affords them the protection of privacy while still waiving their right to confidentiality.

At minimum, you should inform the participants that if they waive their right to confidentiality that anything they might reveal during the research may be disseminated in the research findings. You also need to inform participants that they may withdraw from the study. If they do withdraw, you must respect their wishes as to what will be done with their data.